Sunspots
by SerenNoir
Summary: When a deadly virus hits the streets of Detroit, Naruto must do what he can to keep himself and his friends alive. AU
1. Chapter 1

**Sunspots**

**Rating: T**

**Comments: This started feeling a lot like a Stephen King novel. I can only hope I've taken something that feels overdone and have put a new twist on things. I'm a sucker of apocalyptic-anything, so writing this should be a breeze. Going to be relatively short. I've only got about three to four chapters fleshed out so far.**

_**I posted this story a few years ago and wound up taking it down. Since then, it's been sitting on my hard drive gathering dust. Have been working on it and revamping it on and off for the past year, so maybe this version will be more to my liking. For those that happened to read it back when, I hope you like the edits and those reading for the first time, hell, I just hope you like it. **_

* * *

For the first time in fourteen years, the vagrant that occupied the little alcove near Naruto's apartment building's steps wasn't screaming apocalyptic messages. Unbeknown to him at the time, on the far side of town a middle-aged cab driver suffered fatal organ failure, a prisoner behind his wheel. And then, a few blocks from them, a subway full of day-traffickers suddenly started noticing scaly patches rise up on their arms, behind their ears, in their mouths.

The television stations started shouting things about biological warfare.

The stations weren't coming in again, which meant that any news of rations were going to be cut off from the public. Or what remained of it, that is. Naruto banged the archaic transistor radio against the edge of the table, hoping that a little bit of jostling would fire it up. It emitted harsh static that filled the small room quickly, but he could just barely hear spoken words garbled in between.

"Give it a rest, Naruto. You know that thing never works if you don't treat it with a little TLC." Sakura appeared in his line of vision, raising a hand to rub the tension out of his shoulders. Her once immaculately-manicured nails were chewed down to nubs.

"It's been almost a week since they've called for rations. And we're almost down to the last of what we got. If they don't call someone from our sector soon, we're all going to starve to death."

"Better than rotting to death any day of the week, I'll say," Kiba quipped from his position on their makeshift couch, referring to the suffering the less fortunate city-goers endured with the virus. Kiba was always trying to make their situation out to be better than it was by emphasizing how much worse it _could_ be. It was how he coped with the tragedy surrounding them.

Kiba Inuzuka and Sakura Haruno had been Naruto's friends long before the outbreak hit their bustling city. He grew up with them when he moved to the city and he was glad to have them both by his side even though it was tough to swallow that their group used to be much larger. The faces of his cold, dead friends filled his mind forcing Naruto to swallow back the hard lump in his throat.

What scared him the most, and probably everybody for that matter, was how little he knew about the outbreak. Only that it was airborne and killed about half of the city already, in just the few short weeks it had been there. When it first started spreading, thousands flocked to the nearest drugstores to buy masks and eventually discovered that the virus was too strong, too potent to keep out. People started dropping like flies. Day after day, the death toll rose until the city took to the buildings and to the underground like rats.

If the virus didn't kill you, the population would. The city turned hostile in the only way human nature can when forced to fight to stay alive. Naruto and Kiba literally had to beat the previous tenant of their airtight shack to a pulp in order to find a safe place to hide. They were not proud of this fact, but it was a necessity for their survival. Looting became a big problem at first, when it was still relatively safe to venture out into open air. The only ones brave enough to do that these days were the ones who has access to full-blown HAZMAT suits. The only way to keep the virus out completely was to find a basement, dug pretty deep, with no windows, no air ducts; absolutely no way to let the elements inside.

Naruto and Kiba had rigged up a makeshift sanitizing station out in the hallway with a fan that circulated over-used, sterilized, filtered air into the small rooms. They only had one gas mask to the three of them, which meant it was usually up to one person to go out and secure all the supplies they happened to need at the time. But only when the stations called for them.

The water still seemed to be safe, surprisingly. Mother Nature was fighting against the man-made enemy and many talked of how She would eventually end up re-cleansing the air. If the water remained untouched, then it was only a matter of time before the earth righted itself and fixed the problem the only way it knew best.

"We're out of matches and kerosene; add that to the list," Sakura yelled from the back room that served as the supply closet. "And a couple more blankets. God knows it's only going to get colder in this part of the state."

"Forget fucking freezing to death. Hey, who wants to play the Speculating Game?" Kiba replied sullenly. "Let's all guess how all this shit started and why there's nothing being considerably done to control the fall-out. I don't have to have a degree from fancy-pants MIT like Naruto here to guess at what's going on up there."

Naruto sighed heavily, giving up on the radio for the moment. His stomach gave an uncomfortable grumble at the thought of going hungry until rations were called.

"I'm pretty positive it's biowarfare that the news was going on about before things went underground. There's no reason to lie when so many are dead from this thing. The only secret they're keeping from us was how and why it's in Detroit." Placating Kiba these days was becoming more difficult. Naruto also had reservations about what the government was doing to help contain the virus, but he tried to keep these thoughts to himself.

Sakura emerged from the back with their stash of blankets, pushing Kiba over on the couch for room. "I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but what if things aren't getting better? We could be stuck down here for a very long time and I don't know about you, but I'm really starting to miss the sun. And the wind."

Kiba stretched an arm around her comfortingly. She had become increasingly more morose as the days stretched on; and without her support neither Naruto nor Kiba would be able to handle their own morale. Her face has begun losing its natural luster where before Sakura was always the more determined of the three.

"I'll go out and get our supplies, don't worry," Naruto reassured her, hoping the promise of much-needed items would boost her spirit. When the frown on her face didn't lessen, Naruto stood, moving across the room to where they kept the outside gear.

A standard gasmask hung on a hook inside the tiny closet, along with thick heavy coats to keep infection from spreading onto the skin if the virus was able to do that now. Naruto fixed the mask onto his face, adjusting it so his breath didn't fog up the thick Plexiglas. He looked at his friends, noticing their thin fingers. He should have never brought them here; should have taken them somewhere closer to a food source. They might have had a decent chance then.

Biting back the nausea that normally accompanied his overwhelming responsibility, Naruto maneuvered through the obstacle course that was their sterilizing station. The heavy metal door at the end of the hallway groaned as it moved under his hands and for the first time that week, he was outside.

He covered the upper half of his face with an arm, blocking out the extreme sunlight that seemed to burn his eyes. A short jog up a narrow flight of steps brought him street-level and he was met with the same dead Detroit it had been for weeks. Hundreds of cars stalled in the middle of the road which made traveling a bit more difficult.

He lifted his backpack higher on his shoulders, seeking out the familiar street sign that would lead him towards the SafeHouse, as many of the living inhabitants of the city aptly named it. Naruto was always amazed each time he came out at how the city went from prosperous to a complete ghost town in such a short time. The way the tall buildings loomed over him made him feel like he was the last person on the planet to call this place home.

He was only a few short blocks from his destination before he was unceremoniously tackled to the ground. Naruto yelped in surprise as his hands were pulled painfully behind his back. He hadn't heard footsteps behind him and the looters were usually never this quiet.

"Caught one; take him in for detoxification," a man's voice instructed.

"Wait, wait, hold on a minute! I'm not infected," Naruto wheezed out, struggling against the pair of strong arms that held him.

"He's coherent, Hatake!" The man holding him seemed almost incredulous. Naruto shook him off furiously, rounding to see a dozen men with rifles and one tall gray-haired fellow wearing just a fabric mask.

"Of course I'm coherent! I told you already that I don't have the virus." The gray-haired man raised an eyebrow, moving closer to inspect for himself.

"Oh well, my bad," he replied simply, smiling. "You can't be too careful around here, it's one of the areas most heavily hit. I apologize for ordering my men to attack you."

Naruto glowered. "How do you know this area is the worst? Who told you that?"

The man paused, signaling to the guys with guns to keep looking around. "Son, I'm military. I'm one of the most well-briefed people on this situation."

Most well-briefed? Here was his chance to be on the inside and find out why so many people were dying without reason. Surely they had a safer environment to live in than what he had. "Then you can tell me why this virus is here in the first place. Consider it your official apology for nearly shooting me," Naruto demanded.

The smile on his face dropped. "Now you know I can't do that. It's top-secret stuff, kid. It's best you run along to your shelter now where it's safe." He made to leave, but Naruto latched onto his forearm.

"Respectfully sir, I'm following you until you tell me what I goddamn need to know." Naruto knew he wasn't that tall, but he had enough muscle to hold his own if he needed to. He just hoped Hatake wouldn't give the order to shoot.

The man sighed, running a hand heavily through his hair. "I can already tell you're going to be something of a pest." Naruto perked up at that, extending his hand.

The elder took it, shaking it firmly. "So what's your name, pest?"

"Naruto Uzumaki."

"Well, Naruto Uzumaki, I'm Lt. Kakashi Hatake. I work for the Department of Defense." Suddenly, the man reached up and pulled down his mask, exposing his face to the air. "And I'm one of the few left who have immunity. I have to ask you to come with me anyway to test you out."

"Test me? What for? I already told you that I don't have the virus. I never go outside without my gear on."

"_Respectfully, _you don't know a damn thing about this virus," Kakashi cut him off. "It's the sunlight, kid. Can't you see? You should be infected right now, but you're not. I need to see if you hold the same immunity as myself."

Naruto's eyes widened at this. The sun? But how was that possible? The radio stations had told him it was an airborne virus. And if it was the sun, how was it allowing him and Kiba to go outside freely? It couldn't be that they were both immune, could it? He racked his brain trying to think of what dangers the sun could hold when it came to viruses. He thought of none.

"I see you're a little bit shaken up. Come on, I'll explain everything once we get to headquarters. There's a lot you need to know." Kakashi motioned for him to follow.

Naruto followed dumbly, forcing himself to not look up into that bright ball of white that hung high in the sky; the silent killer that he didn't think of before. Maybe they were wrong about Mother Nature. Instead of trying to fix the Earth, perhaps she was annihilating it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sunspots **

**Chapter Two **

* * *

The first word that came to Naruto's mind when Hatake's SUV pulled up was: _tank._ The windows were tinted a pitch black so that when Kakashi opened one of the back doors, Naruto was surprised to see that the middle bench seat was already occupied. They shifted to the back so that Kakashi and he was in their seats, closer to the driver.

The vehicle purred as the driver revved the engine and maneuvered them through the crowded street. What Naruto took for tint was actually a light coating of black gossamer paint, which made visibility difficult. He hoped they didn't wreck.

"This is probably getting me court-marshaled," Kakashi spoke up next to him. "Though it isn't the first time I've brought someone back with me. Even so, when we get there let me do all the talking."

"How many people have you brought back ended up being infected?" Naruto's stomach sunk before Kakashi responded, resigning himself to the fact that he was probably a lost cause; he had been outside in daylight too many times to not be infected.

"Quite a few, which is why they hate it when I do," Kakashi mused quietly "Just another body to dispose of if it goes all pear-shaped towards the end." Naruto couldn't stop the shudder that careened through his body. He didn't feel like being executed today, or any day.

"Then why did you give in to my request? You could have sent me on my merry way instead of letting me come along. I think I have a right to know what's going on, but I don't want to be walking to my own death, either."

Kakashi's eyes crinkled in amusement. "Can't put anything past you, huh kid? Okay, I'll tell you the watered down version. Besides the gut feeling I get when I run across someone who isn't infected, you told me your name."

"My name?"

"You're of Asian descent, right?"

Naruto's brow furrowed in confusion. "Japanese, yeah, but what bearing does that have?"

"It holds a lot actually. Tell you what, take off your gasmask so I can look at your eyes. If it's not what I'm looking for, I'll let you out here and you won't be taken in for testing and then you can hope for the best you're not infected," Kakashi explained simply, motioning for a man behind him to move closer.

Naruto stalled. He fought with himself on whether or not to remove the mask. Even if Kakashi said the _air_ was safe, all these months being overly-careful was an old habit to kill. But everyone inside the vehicle wore no protective gear and the man riding shotgun even had his window cracked. They obviously had no fear of any airborne viruses. It made Kakashi's story that much more believable.

Carefully, he un-cinched the strap at the back of his mask and pulled the contraption off his face, making a loud _pop!_ as suction was released. The man behind him leaned in close; close enough that Naruto felt a little brazen at telling him to stick his nose in someone else's personal space.

"This is Iruka, one of our top medical advisors. He knows best what needs be looked for," Kakashi explained, as Iruka took that last step at invading one's privacy and traced a finger over the contours of Naruto's face. Feeling a bit violated and silly, Naruto sighed heavily under his breath after a few moments of Iruka's careful explorations.

"So Doc, what do I have?"

Instead of answering him, Iruka turned and addressed Kakashi. "His facial structure is longer and more oval, which fits the description and the nose is more prominent. I have no doubt he's Japanese, but it's the eyes that make me second-guess myself. They're blue, sir. And they don't look like contacts to me."

"Genetic anomaly," Naruto bristled. "Recessive trait, both my parents carried the blue-eyed gene. I'm not some infant, so don't talk about me like I'm not here and I don't know what I am." He crossed his arms over his chest in an effort to potentially ward off Iruka swooping back in for another once-over.

Kakashi failed to rise to his bait, however, and the passive grin on his face remained. "Alright, seeing as you're so keen to finding out what's going on, I'll cut you a deal. If by some chance, you do test positive for the virus, I'll pull some strings and have you released where you can wander on down the road and die of your own accord. And you will die, trust me." Naruto opened his mouth to retort but Kakashi waved him down. "However, if your immunity is built up enough for regular excursions outside, you work for me. Understood? We need more people like you to help us."

"Help you with what?"

"Ah, that I can't tell you. So you'll just have to wait till we get to base to find out, hm?"

Naruto jerked his head around to stare out the murky black of the window. Kakashi was infuriating, yet important somehow to him.

* * *

The base was crowded, but at least it was inside. They had taken up residence in an abandoned brewery; covering up the enormous skylights with heavy-duty tarps.

"Welcome to the world of pseudo-vampires!" Kakashi exclaimed next to him. "Nearly everyone you see here doesn't hold our immunity so it's our job to get what they need without them ever having to step foot outside."

"Where are the civilians?" Naruto questioned when he noticed there weren't any Levi's or GAP among the military uniforms and lab coats.

"I told you kid, this is all government intel. We're remedying the problem. Can you imagine the chaos we'd have on our hands if we just opened up the floodgates of information to everyone? We'd have whack-jobs trying to shoot nukes into the sun."

Although Kakashi's reasoning made sense, Naruto couldn't help but feel like he and the rest of his city were left at the mercy of those higher than them.

"So who's the guy responsible for telling me what's going on?"

Kakashi waved for Naruto to follow him into an inner part of the factory where someone had rigged up a make-shift lab. A dozen or so scientists were gathered around a busty blonde woman peering through a microscope.

"Shit! Shit! The nucleotides are repelling. What a crock!" she suddenly bellowed, pushing away from the table in frustration. She stalked over towards a cabinet near them and retrieved a cigarette, quick to light up and puff angrily. As soon as she caught sight of them, her eyes narrowed.

"Another one, Kakashi? I thought we agreed you wouldn't test another."

"He insisted, Tsunade dear."

She leveled her gaze then to Naruto and behind that calculating glare was a curiosity. "It almost looks like he's going to pass. Imagine that, someone you bring in that may be purebred. This hair though…," she trailed off, rubbing a few strands of his hair between her fingertips. She smiled, a lucid thing, and waved him over to a sterile operating table.

"Now sit right up there and hold still. I'm just going to take a blood sample."

Despite his better judgment, Naruto tensed at the sight of the needle she was preparing for him. Under normal circumstances having blood drawn was a piece of cake, but the outcome of what would happen if he tested negative for the immunity weighed heavily on his mind. It was over quickly, however, and Tsunade dismissed them with a flick of her wrist.

"I'll page someone to deliver your results."

Out in the hallway, Kakashi exhaled heavily. "I really hope you pass, kid. I really do."

"It's not about just passing; it's my existence. This isn't some midterm final pass or fail kind of situation," Naruto reminded him, surreptitiously wiping his clammy hands on his jeans. If Kakashi noticed the nervous action, he didn't say anything. Iruka, who had been following them around like a lost puppy, veered off down a separate hallway with what looked to be medical equipment strewn across the corridor.

"It'll take about an hour to get your results in, but that should be plenty time to let them brief you," Kakashi said, leading him into a room to their left. A group of men were assembled around a large circular table in a heated discussion.

"Hatake, this is unacceptable! Time and time again we've warned you not to bring another here!" a man yelled from the group, breaking away and stalking towards them. He walked stiffly as if the task of walking gave him pain. It was only when Naruto saw the profile of the man's face did he hold in a gasp. A thick bandage wound around the right side of his face, alluding to a very serious injury to his right eye.

Kakashi saluted gravely, casting his eyes downward and away from the penetrating glare of his superior officer. "I'm sorry, sir, but even Tsunade has a good hunch about this one. I would be failing at my duties if I didn't try to look for more like us."

"Do you know how much time and effort it takes into briefing these people? I need all my smartest heads together working to fix this hellish situation. You're well aware that the only individual still alive from the Ground Team is Uchiha. He's also currently unavailable at the moment," Danzo spat vehemently.

Naruto observed a young Japanese man from the group lift his head at the sound of his name, turning to glare in the general direction of Naruto and Kakashi.

"Danzo, I'll humor Kakashi for the time being. Besides, I doubt that this kid he's brought in has any chance at all," the man spoke up. Naruto bristled at the blasé emotion towards his well-being. He could tell already that he wouldn't like the guy.

Kakashi was unaffected. "Thank you, Sasuke." A condescending look was shot at the back of Danzo's head by the grey-haired man.

Upon standing, Naruto noticed that Sasuke was tall and slender, with slight muscle but not nearly enough to warrant military. That only left the possibility of scientist, and from the discussion between Danzo and Kakashi, Naruto concluded that Sasuke knew _exactly _what was going on.

Sasuke stood rather abruptly. "This meeting will have to wait till later. I have business." The men around the table didn't try to hide their disgust at a civilian trying to tell them what to do but still reluctantly got up and exited the room.

"Kakashi, normally I would send you away without further instruction, because as you well know my faith in your skill at picking out these characters is basically non-existent. In fact, I'm only humoring you because those fucks in uniform don't really care what's happening in our city. I do."

Sasuke wasn't a remarkably tall man, but the length of his body made him come across as _towering. _His eyes were dark brown; the no-nonsense kind of brown that made Naruto bite his tongue on all the things he wanted to say at the current moment.

"What kind of schooling do you have?" Sasuke asked pleasantly, sipping what appeared to be coffee from the mug in front of him. The black watch around his slender wrist looked expensive.

"Well, I'm a graduate from MIT…" Naruto began.

"Cambridge! Great! Now I won't have to worry about dumbing myself down to get you to understand me," Sasuke cut in flippantly.

Naruto fumed quietly. "I doubt what's going on requires a tech degree to figure out. If you really wanted me to know, you'd figure out how to tell me in the simplest terms."

"Perhaps." He resumed to drink his coffee.

"Sasuke, stop stalling." Kakashi spat out impatiently. "It's obvious that I actually found you a match this time so why don't you cut to the chase and tell Naruto."

Sasuke glared up at him. "We'll see if _Naruto_ is a match or not. Well, don't just stand there you dimwit, sit down. You're already wasting my time as it is."

Naruto slid in one of the cushioned chairs on the other side of the table. "Are you normally this crabby?" He couldn't keep his comments to himself anymore; not after witnessing first-hand the volatile temper the other man possessed.

"Have you looked outside lately, Naruto? I think I have the right to be a bit crabby. After all, I'm a part of the team that's caused all this."

"What do you mean "caused"?"

"I'm getting to that if you'll shut up." Sasuke let out a gentle sigh. "We've been trying to find a cure for skin cancer for years. My team and I spent an extensive amount of money and research. We finally came up with something that would help us learn more about it. We wanted to know what would happen to the human body if the ozone were to be depleted; what simple sunlight would do to the body."

"We released a mutated version of melanoma DNA into the city's water supply. It was benign when tested in our labs; initially harmless. We never thought it would mutate _again._ It was such a hypothetical situation."

"Wait, released? Isn't that illegal? Shouldn't you have some sort of government approval before you go releasing dangerous substances into the people's water!" Naruto was having difficulty keeping his voice down now; the man across from him looked dead-tired of having to repeat the same story over and over. Tired of reliving the same failed experiment.

"If you don't calm yourself, I'm not going to tell you the rest."

Naruto felt a strong hand on his shoulder; knew it was Kakashi trying to placate him. A thousand emotions swum through his head. Why was the city of Detroit suddenly these scientists' guinea pigs? Naruto slumped back into his chair with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Like I said, the DNA was initially harmless, but then it mutated. We later discovered, with sickening clarity I might add, that once sunlight was allowed contact to anybody who drank the water the person developed some sort of hyper-mutated form of skin cancer. It spreads very fast and you already know the outcome of it all." Sasuke fell silent, circling his finger slowly around the top of his coffee mug.

Naruto sat in complete juxtaposition to his dark-haired counterpart. His first instinct was to yell and accuse, point fingers at the wretched excuses for human beings who used others for the greater good of scientific discovery. His second was to get out of the building and tell anyone who would listen; start a riot over the injustice of it all. His third stunned him into submission. There was no way Sasuke and his team knew what would happen. It didn't excuse the fact that they did it without permission, but it was done with the best of intentions to say the least.

"There isn't a day I don't think about what we've done and what it's still doing," Sasuke added quietly, finally surfacing from his own thoughts to look at Naruto.

A charge swept between the two. It was clear to Naruto then that although Sasuke came across as sort of an asshole, he wasn't the bad guy. This whole ordeal was just one giant perversion of nature but an accident nonetheless.

"My team is gone, Naruto. I need someone smart and immune to the virus to help me. We need to get this thing contained and out of the city so people can go back to living." Sasuke stood suddenly, seconds before the door to their room swung open almost as if he had been anticipating it.

A woman rushed in with a folder marked CLASSIFIED under her arm. She wordlessly handed it to Kakashi who opened it without delay. Naruto watched his eyes scan the document inside before widening expressively. He quickly thanked the woman before excusing her out of the room.

Turning to them both, he broke out into a wide smile.

"Sasuke, I think we've found you a partner. Naruto. He's immune."


	3. Chapter 3

**Sunspots **

**Rating: T**

**Comments: Another one. ****J**

**Chapter Three**

* * *

Naruto breathed the sigh of relief he had been holding in for the past hour. He was immune; un-fucking-believable. Apparently he was the _only_ one ever brought in by Kakashi to be immune. The man seemed giddy, slapping Naruto heartily on the back in congratulations.

Sasuke had grown quiet after the announcement, studying Naruto with such scrutiny it was beginning to become unsettling. The man's dark eyes watched him from across the table, tracking his every movement.

"Are they certain, Kakashi?" the dark-haired man commented, suddenly speaking again. Kakashi gave a nod of his head and scanned back over the report.

"It's without a doubt. His blood is pure. Simply amazing, really. The likelihood of not having at least _a little_ of something else in him is very, very slim."

"What makes me different though than the rest you've brought in, other than I'm _pure_?" Naruto questioned. Happy as he was, he was still confused about why he stood out from the rest of the city.

Sasuke cleared his throat, commanding Naruto's attention to him. "After we realized that people were dying from being exposed simply to sunlight, we started noticing those showing signs of _not_ being ill after exposure. All these people had one thing in common: race."

"Shockingly, a large majority of Oriental and Northern European races had immunity to the disease. We spent weeks analyzing and running tests until we finally figured out that the already present light-skinned cells present in those particular races seemed adapted to reject the hybrid melanoma DNA straight off. Unfortunately, the amount of those people immune were in the minority. They became this center's next hope. It's why I survived, Naruto, because of my ancestry. It's why you are alive and why Kakashi is alive. And Danzo and Tsunade and the soldiers that brought you here."

The breath was robbed from Naruto's lungs. There were only a few people in his life that would possibly be immune. After moving to Detroit, Naruto sought out people other than his own race in order to adapt more naturally to his surroundings. Kiba would be safe then; as far as he knew the man was full-blooded Japanese. But Sakura? She was an Army brat and she often talked about her red-headed mother frequently. The outlook for her seemed dim.

Naruto hoped Kiba was keeping a good eye on her and not letting her go outside their safe house. Perhaps sensing his unease, Naruto felt Kakashi lay a comforting hand upon his shoulder.

"There's still hope for a lot of people. You have to take into account the people who drink only store-bought water or who wasn't exposed to it at all," the man offered. "Even those who ingested it are still safe; only the ones that consumed a large amount of straight tap water are sick."

Sasuke nodded his head in agreement. "The military is in charge of the evacuation plan; our job is to sanitize the reservoirs. I've been working on a solution that we can add to the water that should kill the gene." Sasuke gathered his things from the table; shoving papers hurriedly into his briefcase. "Kakashi, if you don't mind, I'll take Naruto now to explain his job if he's willing to receive it."

Sasuke leveled a questioning glance at him then. There was a hint of pleading behind his eyes and Naruto found himself nodding without second thought. If Sasuke felt like his brains could be put to good use, who was he to deny helping thousands of people?

There was only one option; follow Sasuke. The man nodded at Kakashi before exiting the room, something unspoken passing between them. Naruto wanted to ask about his friends and if they could be brought in, but he hesitated after seeing Sasuke push through an emergency exit and walk so calmly through the abandoned parking lot adjacent to the warehouse. Although he was cleared, old habits died hard as he hovered in the doorway. Naruto shoved his fear to the back of his mind and hurried to follow Sasuke.

"Why are we in such a hurry?" Naruto panted after a couple city blocks. The urgency in the way Sasuke was traveling seemed as if he was running from something. Which seemed ridiculous no matter how you look at it; the danger was something you couldn't exactly run away from.

"We can't talk here; have to get somewhere more secluded."

"Why do we have to talk there? What's your big secret?"

Sasuke grunted in what sounded like frustration. "Do you ever stop asking questions? I told you I'd tell you once we were somewhere safe to talk. Now stop aggravating me and pick up your feet."

Naruto mumbled an expletive under his breath as they wound their way through the city street crowded with stalled, empty cars. A vanity plate, bent up at the edge, scraped against his leg and he cursed again quietly. Sasuke's secrecy wasn't something he needed right now, but for the sake of keeping the peace he kept his comments to himself.

Sasuke paused across the street from a bookstore displaying a large coffee mug outside the window. He checked both sides of the street, an action that was laugh-worthy to Naruto. There was no one out there with them! The inside of the store smelled like Naruto imagined it would; musty with the scent of a thousand ill-forgotten old hardbacks and stale coffee.

Sasuke dumped his stuff down on one of the back tables before retreating in between a row of ceiling-high bookshelves. Naruto followed, eyes scanning the novels before him, musing to himself that he might pick up a few and read them when he had the time. By the looks of things it seemed Sasuke had been living alone in the building for a few weeks. There was a makeshift lab built up on one of the bookshelves, covered with papers with scribbled, indecipherable equations.

"What's all this?" Naruto asked, running a finger over the journals.

"After all of my team died, I lost most of the leverage I had back at the lab. I think I said before I'm only interested in creating a cure. Everyone else is just looking for a profit."

"A profit? How?"

Sasuke leveled him with a glare. "I know you can't be this naïve. If the government can get it contained, they'll take credit for it just as fast whether they helped or not. I tried telling Tsunade this, but she wouldn't listen."

"Maybe cause she knows that having her own agenda isn't helping anybody. Who cares who found the cure as long as it's found, right!"

Sasuke looked positively livid then. "I have a feeling we're going to bump heads while working together, because you're already starting to piss me off."

"If you remember correctly, it wasn't MY suggestion to work with you," Naruto commented blithely.

Sasuke slumped into a chair behind him, his argument apparently losing steam. "Naruto, you do not understand how much I'd like to fix this myself," he said calmly. "It's my responsibility; I was the one who created it."

"But you have to face it that you need my help and not just mine, but the rest of them, too. Another gold sticky star at the top of Danzo's paystub doesn't change the fact that people are dying."

A look crossed Sasuke's face; one that Naruto could almost call defeated. He had to convince this guy that working as a team would be the only way to fix things.

"I'm not promising I'll cooperate with everyone, just you, Tsunade and Kakashi. There's a lot of people I work with that would love to see me dead with the rest of my team," he finally conceded.

"I'm not asking for a miracle."

Sasuke laughed then. "Yeah, well, could you hope for one anyway?"

* * *

Days turned into weeks after that. Naruto was consumed by work; running errands for Sasuke and collecting water samples. When Sasuke checked in with Danzo, Naruto stayed behind and continuously checked and re-checked the equations for accuracy. The monotony was starting to seriously bug him. Whenever he could find the time to divert his attention elsewhere, that was always taken up by worry for Kiba and Sakura. They would have no idea if he was dead or alive and he wasn't so certain they were either.

Going to see them would be out of the question where Sasuke was involved. The man was so secretive about everything in his life, including his personal history. Once Naruto asked if he had family and Sasuke didn't talk to him for the rest of the evening. It was like if someone just shut off a light switch inside him.

"I need to go make sure my friends are okay," he blurted out one night while Sasuke was bent over his lab table like he so often was.

"You can't tell them what's really happened of course; they'll either never believe you or never trust you again," Sasuke answered after a moment, straightening up and sweeping his hair out of his face. "And I'll have to go with you. Not because I can't trust you, but because you have to understand how serious information can be when put in the wrong hands."

Naruto held up his palms turned towards Sasuke. "Mine are clean."

Sasuke smirked at this; a careful raise of one side of his mouth but a smirk nonetheless. "Somehow I really doubt they are; I've caught you countless times tampering with my clean samples without washing your hands beforehand."

Naruto shrugged noncommittally, already absorbed in gathering a few supplies to take to Kiba and Sakura. If Kiba hadn't somehow gotten food before now, they would certainly be on death's door. He was certain Kiba was smart enough to procure some of his own once he realized Naruto wasn't coming back, but it wouldn't hurt to bring them a little extra. The only thing readily available were discarded MRE's from Danzo's soldiers that Naruto had gathered earlier in the week. Grabbing enough to allow some left for Sasuke and himself, Naruto stuffed them all into a black knapsack along with two gallon milk jugs full of purified, clean water.

"Where are you going with all that?" Sasuke demanded once he noticed Naruto about to leave.

"With all what? The food? I'm taking it to my friends in case they're running low."

"WE'RE running low, Naruto," Sasuke spat. "Rations have been even less lately; we need to keep all we can." His voice was accusatory, like Naruto had anything to do with food and clean water being scarce.

Naruto shook his head in amazement and propped open the door with one foot. "You need to stop thinking about yourself all the time. What if they need my help? I'm not just going to let them suffer alone since you won't let me bring them to us or tell them what's even really going on!"

"You are NOT taking that food, Naruto. And you know damn well why you can't tell a soul what's happening." Sasuke's neck was splotching red with anger. Naruto couldn't understand for the life of him why Sasuke was being so suddenly defensive.

He turned back to the door in time to feel the blunt force of Sasuke's shoulders crash into his back. In his effort to right himself from the assault, he jammed a leg into the door only to have Sasuke grapple with the bag in his arms. Bright sunlight streamed onto his forehead and in his confusion, Naruto suddenly forgot why all this was happening. A passive instinctual calling told him that being outside meant death if he didn't have his protective gear. The news about sunlight and contaminated water and his immunity was lost to him. His breath came in short, labored gasps and his chest seized up with fear.

After the first few seconds of the thought of him dying ebbed away and he stood, helpless, in the light realizing that nothing was going to hurt him sent him a few moments of clarity. Sasuke had _pushed_ him out where it was the most dangerous. In the end, the man never really learned how to work with others; he was still only looking out for himself.

He also must have noticed the shock and terror that had leaked onto Naruto's face for those brief moments because he stood shaken in the doorway. His eyes glinted with unspoken apology and perhaps even he felt that something should have gone terribly wrong. He didn't get a chance to apologize though as Naruto reeled back his arm and sent his fist into Sasuke's jaw. The man stumbled back through the open doorway, clutching a hand to his face, expression switching quickly to discomfort, and finally to acceptance.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke murmured, closing and locking the door behind the both of them. His pale skin looked sallow and feverish at the same time and it was then that Naruto noticed the toll stress had taken on Sasuke. There was no telling when the last time he had a decent meal or full night's rest was. If they didn't find a antivirus soon Sasuke would be among the thousands rotting in the streets.

A few blocks away Sasuke brushed his knuckles against Naruto's, silently asking if he was forgiven in his own way. "It's ok," Naruto eventually conceded, studying the light bruise that was slowly forming along Sasuke's jaw surreptitiously in his peripheral. Even if he did accept the man's apology, the shit deserved it.

The building looked just like he had left it, which meant that no one had come since he had been gone and overtaken the place. He raised his hand to knock, felt silly doing so, and lowered his hand to the doorknob instead. The inside was cool and Naruto could hear the soft sizzle of the battery-operated grill he had looted back when the epidemic first broke out.

There weren't really any words to describe the look on Sakura's face when he appeared in the doorway. It wasn't long before she burst into tears and ran to him, wrapping him in an embrace Naruto had sorely missed. Kiba stood back, scrutinizing the scene before him. His eyes didn't sway from Sasuke, and Naruto could tell he was trying to piece all the information together in his head.

"Oh my god, Naruto, where the hell have you been! Kiba and I thought you caught the infection and were dead!" Sakura took a step back, pushing roughly on Naruto's shoulder in a demand for an explanation. "So, why aren't you dead?"

Naruto struggled for an explanation suitable to tell them and came up empty. What could he tell them other than the truth? Sasuke wouldn't allow him that. These were his best friends for chrissakes! He glanced back over his shoulder at Sasuke, trying to catch his eye and plead with him. The man was lost in a world of disinterest, uncomfortably leaning against the wall and looking everywhere but at the scene unfolding before him.

"Have you guys been outside at all since I've been gone?" Hopefully deterring them from the subject of his disappearance would help his case. A spark of shame lit up inside him; shame at not being able to save his best friends from what they didn't know or understand, shame at having to lie to save his own skin.

"I go out for rations. We found a place closer to here." Kiba mumbled, his face falling into a mask of distrust. The shame burnt brighter inside him.

Naruto faltered for a second, reaching for Sakura and grimacing when she subtly pulled away from his hand. "Guys, when this is all over, I'll explain everything." He knew there wasn't anything left to say; nothing was going to make things right between them. He set the bag of supplies he had brought for them at his feet and turned. Sasuke's eyebrows were furrowed in contemplation but he didn't say anything, only lead the way back out the door into the crisp, chilling wind of the day.

The heavy metal door slammed shut behind them with a loud bang, signaling the end of everything Naruto once held dear. His friends didn't trust him. Hell, if he were in their position, he wouldn't trust himself either. There wasn't anything left for him to do except what he had been working so hard for the past couple weeks to achieve. He had to kill off this virus, even if it was the last thing his tired, aching body was able to do.


End file.
